AbnRanger

The way to get a real resolution in any software is not to blow up in a public forum, but to FIRST contact support and TRY to find a solution to your problem. If you haven't even done that much, then there is a major source of your problems. Instead of giving any specifics, or instead of trying to FIND A SOLUTION...you came here to insult. Talk about losing a job. Try heaping insults at your supervisor or clients and let us know how that works out for you. ANY time you have a new release in ANY software, there are new bugs introduced. I can assure that Mac users of ZBrush get pretty ill with Pixologic too. There is no magic wand to have a bug-free application. The only way to do that is to essentially shut down development and offer no new features/enhancements. If you want software that doesn't offer updates and new features at a fast pace, then yes, you have the wrong application. If you can make a brief video capture (using Camstudio, BB Flashback Express which is free, or Jing...free also) of the problem and send a link to it to support@3d-coat.com you'll get a solution much, much faster than venting your frustration here. If Andrew can pinpoint what's happening in your video, then he may ask you to send a copy of your file so he can try to re-produce it. There is not a single piece of software out there that doesn't have some issues at any given time....often times those issues are LOOOONNNGG-standing problems. For example...3ds Max 2011 has a new Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) included, but there have been some long-standing bugs that Autodesk have been made aware of on their forums since it was released in March. Here we are not far from a new release and there is still no hotfix for those major issues. I have come across bugs in 3D Coat at inopportune times, myself, and get pretty frustrated, but I stop...take a few minutes to get a video capture of the problem, and Andrew usually gets right on it. I don't know of any other software vender that is that attentive. It's practically like having a TD an e-mail away, to help anytime you have an issue. That is not the case anywhere else that I'm aware of...save some plugin dev's. As I have said before, one reason why I never and will never buy a MAC is because it is ALWAYS lagging behind in support and new releases. Some of that is due to it's tiny market footprint, and much of it is the way Steve Jobs chooses to develop his OS's. Don't blow up on developers because Steve Jobs makes their life unnecessarily hard.

I have an NVidia card on my desktop and an ATI 5730 on my laptop. Therefore, I would like to see OpenCL as well, but I don't see it happening for a while..."2009 saw the ratification of OpenCL 1.0 and the launch of DirectCompute, and while the launch of these cross-platform APIs removed some of the roadblocks, we heard as recently as last month from Adobe and others that there’s still work to be done before companies can confidently deploy GPU compute accelerated software. The immaturity of OpenCL drivers was cited as one cause, however there’s also the fact that a lot of computers simply don’t have a suitable compute-capable GPU – it’s Intel that’s the world’s biggest GPU vendor after all."

Will do...just sent it to Andrew as well.

Nope...it blows up in every mode. The Pose tool is inoperable, period, in this build.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBpqalFb98M

+1. I'm not noticing any issues in Surface mode, and man...the brush feel is outstanding. Silky smooth. Great work, Andrew. Very much appreciated.

In the mean time, can you try to use the Move tool in Surface mode or on a proxy while having the layer cached? Almost anytime I want to use the Move or Pose tools, I switch to one of those, and it's pretty smooth.

Is this what you're talking about...rotating along a single axis, and performing a lathe type operation?http://www.3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5486 http://cgdigg.com/3dc/realWorldLathePart1.mov http://cgdigg.com/3dc/realWorldLathePart2.mov

I personally think, and maybe it's already been tried, but Newtek should try to merge PMG into their fold and have them work on integrating the CA tools for LW 11 (and into CORE). Autodesk didn't go out and try to re-invent the wheel regarding CA in Max...they added CAT (Character Animation Toolkit...former $1k plugin) in Max 2011, and that works for me.If Messiah's CA tools were integrated in LW/CORE, I really think that would shore up a perceived weakness...and maybe the tipping point for many folks. The developer(s) at PMG would certainly be a major asset to Newtek on a number of fronts (rendering, particles, dynamics, etc.), so I've been surprised that this hasn't occurred years ago.

Not yet for sale. It looks like it would have better tactile feel than 3dconnexion devices, but I don't it's an ergonomic design. It needs some sort of wrist rest and it leaves no room for added control keys. With a SpacePilot, I seldom need to reach for the keyboard. With this product, you'd have to constantly move your hand off the device to hit shortcut keys. Having said all of that, if they offered support for Mudbox or Zbrush they would likely find a market there.

Oh, I see...yeah, there are only a few surface tools in volume mode. I don't even use them, and switch to volume mode instead. I thought he was referring to something else.

It has nothing to do with being in Voxel Volume mode or not. Your screenshot shows that your toolbar on the left has a bunch of tool sections collapsed. All you have to do is click on the little arrow to expand them. On laptops, sometimes you run out of room, and have to collapse certain tool sections to get to ones beneath.

Can you show a screen grab (you can upload one from the Help menu), so we have an idea of what's going on? I suspect that the pallet somehow is collapse and if you expand it by clicking the little arrow, it will open up again. It happens to me on occasion. Also, when you have issues like you're describe regarding your normal maps, please try using a screen (Video) capture to show the process. Jing is free and it allows you to upload the video to their site. This way we or Andrew can get an idea of what is going on in your scene. Sometimes it's a bug, and sometimes it's just a missed step or two.

Nvidia cards aren't necessarily any louder than ATI's...that is not an issue when you buy a card that comes with aftermarket cooling straight from the factory (usually has heatpipes and twin fans). MSI, ASUS, Galaxy and Palit are often brands that do just that and factory overclock it. I bought a Galaxy 275GTX and have it heavily manually overclocked....and it's quite as a kitten. That would not be the case if it were a card with the standard reference cooling (plastic box with one small fan). I was a big ATI guy until I bought that 4850. I couldn't even use my compositing app, Combustion, with it...no matter what I did. I waited through several driver updates and nothing. Went out and bought an NVidia card, and it worked perfectly. I later upgraded from the 250 GTS to the 275 and have nothing but a great experience with NVidia cards. Reference models: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500157 Modified After market cooling models: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261073 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127513

I'm not certain exactly which brushes get the biggest bump in performance, but it's been my understanding from Andrew's past comments that all Voxel (Volume mode) tools are CUDA accelerated, except the Surface mode. I may be wrong, but I thought I heard Andrew state that Surface mode isn't CUDA accelerated....just volume mode. He did state that the biggest benefit when using a CUDA enabled card is when using materials or masks with large brush radius'. As far as the Fill tool and Smoothing, specifically, perhaps Andrew could address that question more directly. He is currently working on re-building the brush engine in 3DC and said he wouldn't be very active in the forums for a few days. So, I'm just passing on what I know in the mean time. If you use 3ds Max, you'll soon get a big benefit from having a CUDA enabled card, as 2012 is going to have iRay and PhysX integrated...both are GPU accelerated. Personally, I think Maya and perhaps Softimage will get iRay as well. The reason being is that Nvidia stated that iRay is included with Mental Ray licenses for their software vendors (Autodesk). This was last year. It wasn't released in time to make by 3ds Max's cutoff for new features integration in 2011. Sure enough the subscription customers got it recently in their extension pack.

http://www.3d-coat.com/wiki/index.php/12.1_CUDA_BasicsIt is largely dependent upon the number of processing cores the card has and the memory bandwith, but the GTX 260 and newer would likely yield a very noticeable improvement overall. Just going from the GTS 250 (pretty much a repackaged 9800 GTX) to a 275 was very noticeable (it has double the processing cores), for me. So, I would seriously consider a 465 or better, if it's within your budget.

Yeah...getting software updated at academic institutions nearly require an act of Congress. As for higher res carcasses...I don't see the benefit either. Andrew implemented some "coarsing" export features recently, but I've not used yet. Not sure if that would help you in this case or not.

Very helpful tips there...I'm sure you'll have fun doing another one for the Maya/3DC Applink. The one for Max is pretty nice, with a dialogue box and a number of choices.

Just that little added touch of professionalism is what sets 'em apart.

+1.I think the term is intended as "AN official training resource" not "THE official..."

You can also make a "Transparent" shader that you can use during the Retopo process. That will come in handy quite often. You right click on the default gray shader and select "Construct New Shader" > Rename "Transparent" > decrease Opacity to whatever level you want (you can edit it any time by right clicking the same shader and selecting "Edit Current Shader" and adjusting the opacity). You can have not only the vox tree panel present in the Retopo Room, but the Shader panel as well...for these very reasons. If one of your verts gets stuck beneath the surface of the voxel object, and you can't select it, then you can quickly hide the voxel layer and access it (I would also temporarily disable snapping...in the upper left hand cornet of the UI).

I think what James is asking for, is having more full-featured modeling capability in the retopo room, that will aid in the retopo process. A Transform tool that lets you select elements and shows a transform gizmo is just one of those that is sorely needed, IMO. Extrude and Bevel/Chamfer/Fillet Tool is also needed. These aren't meant to be a replacement for modeling applications...but if you think about it, Retopology essentially is a process where you MODEL a lower res mesh. With that in mind, why not have more tools...tools any modeler is accustomed to, to model with?As much as I like the Retopo tools in 3DC, I've been considering doing the work in 3ds Max using the WrapIt plugin (and the built-in Retopo Tools in the Graphite Modeling toolset), for these reasons. They work in conjunction with the modeling tools already in Max. This are a good examples: http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/WrapIt#watch%3Dv17474105HTFwAd47 http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/WrapIt#watch%3Dv17365278F7KDMw8w http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/WrapIt#watch%3Dv173511813ErqdCaB

Make that a 2nd vote. Like it or not, the Retopo room essentially is a group of modeling tools, and there are a number of additions I've been hoping for, for quite some time. Dot Ring/Loop is one of them (at the 1:35 marker): This little tool will make poly reduction a snap, and is sorely needed to cleanup the results from AUTOPO, oftentimes. Shell (Extrusion) Modifier: Single Click Points & Faces Tool (starting at the 1:10 mark, you can see that it is just a single click and drag, of a vert or edge, to create a face...whereas Points and Faces currently requires 2 clicks per face...a left click then a right click. Over the length of a model, that extra click = 2X more time spent): The retopology tools in 3DC are quite good, but with some of these type of improvements it would become industry standard, no question about it.

+1

That's a good idea and option too, but deleting the layer after a save will help keep your layer panel less cluttered, as they can get pretty complex after a while. Your link would be the thumbnail in the "Models" Pallet that appears when you click "Merge." Again, I like the efficiency of the Subtools workflow in ZB, and this gives you a rough equivalent to it. When you merge in 3ds Max, you have that option. That would be nice to have in 3DC.

What I was referring to was the ability to:1) right-click a layer and have the option available to "SAVE TO .3B FILE"...not just an OBJ. That layer can then be deleted and removed from the scene until its needed at a later point. 2) have thumbnail previews of .3b files much like Andrew currently has for obj's and in so doing, the user essentially has the equivalent to ZBrush's Subtools...all components of an object or scene can be quickly saved out and later loaded from the "Models" Panel that appears when the Merge tool is activated. If it's a .3b file then the object could be merged at the very same state (resolution/position/scale/shader) it was saved as.